posted on April 11, 2003 07:21:25 AM new
I just wanted to find out for sure, Vendio does not support Ebay Store, Correct? Are there any plans to support them in the future. If so if I use images hosted by Vendio in a listing in my ebay stores will I be charged an image hosting fee? Thanks!
posted on April 11, 2003 08:35:47 AM new
Hi Cococgld,
Unfortunately we do not support listings to eBay stores. If there are plans to support it in the future, we will let you know. You may use your images in eBay store listings -- since you are on one of the monthly plans, there will be no image hosting fee.
posted on April 12, 2003 07:29:35 AM new
Pass along the suggestion to please hurry and start supporting eBay stores.
EBay is now emailing me to urge me to use their new management program. They don't have any plan with included image hosting at this time, but they will probably offer it before long. I don't want to switch!
I love AuctionWatch (oops, Vendio)!
posted on April 14, 2003 09:13:38 AM new
Yet another not-so-happy customer on Vendio failing to support eBay Stores...
Thanks, Kathy, for your comments!
"Unfortunately we do not support listings to eBay stores. If there are plans to support it in the future, we will let you know." .... per Sonya.
The WHY of the matter is the most important issue now. We need to know what the reasons are so we can make informed decisions based on future Vendio moves (or lack of action).
Sonya states that the situation is "unfortunate". This insinuates that Vendio can't do anything about it. It is within their control to support eBay Stores -- they have CHOSEN not to. How come?
I am advocating that Vendio support the eBay Stores, of course. Supposed eBay support by Vendio is not complete without it... regardless of Vendio having its own store format. My "Active" items in the Sales Manager area is stuffed full of useless information and I have to go thru several pages of them to get to my active auctions. This is a drag!
Vendio can ignore the needs of their customer base and thereby ignore the real people who made them who they are! This is just like what eBay is in the process of doing. We little people are the backbone of both of these companies.
For SONYA:
How about an honest answer to WHY Vendio does not support eBay Stores; I'm a grown up and can take the truth and I'm not leaving Vendio no matter what the answer is!
LEWIS (ebay username: honestyplus)
eBay Store: http://www.stores.ebay.com/burchettenterprises
Vendio Store: http://shop.vendio.com/postmaster
posted on April 15, 2003 05:39:48 AM new
I would assume its because they have their own stores and to encourage us to use thirs instead of EBAY's they'll make it harder to use the EBAY ones. The main auction managers that offer the store feature are the one's who don't have an ingrained store themselves. Which is really poor in my opinion, because it means they don't give a crap about us, just about how much money they are bringing in. This is another reason I STILL havent decided whether to extend my trial membership. Why stay with an auction manager who cares so little for the customers, just themselves?
Draz
P.S. If a customer bypasses the Vendio checkout and uses the EBAY checkout, please tell me there is still a way of putting their shipping info on the invoice somehow. This is driving me crazy!
posted on April 15, 2003 10:03:36 AM new
This is good information, drazk911, you are a trial member and the support for eBay Stores is important for you. It is my opinion that whether or not an auction management company has its own Store area they should STILL support the eBay Store sales.
Not having eBay Store support is short-sighted. I'll predict that eBay will be around after all the other auction management companies have come and gone. If Vendio is indeed covering their bets (which is, of course, good business practice) by moving outward in the web services, then I am all for it. If the ventures are successful Vendio can only enhance their revenues with eBay Store support. IF their stores are more successful and profitable for the sellers than eBay Stores then time will settle the score. Limiting support for a "competitor" Store is not the way to go. Full eBay support includes the eBay Stores! No way around it.
A reiteration of my comment for Vendio:
Don't forget us little folks -- we provided your original customer base!!
As for your problem with getting info into your invoices -- if the customer did not use the checkout just skip the invoice. I don't use them anyhow so I can't help with how to get the info there. I copy/paste the info into the comments area of the Post Sale listing so I have it on hand for shipping. I copy/paste the name/address info on a scrap paper and cut it out and tape it on the package. Let me know if that helps any.
LEWIS
posted on April 15, 2003 10:11:36 AM new
Guess it didn't get deleted...heh just was on the wrong page..DOH
[ edited by drazk911 on Apr 15, 2003 10:13 AM ]
posted on April 15, 2003 12:04:50 PM new
DRAZ: This basic theme is running on the eBay Outlook board too so you could comment there also! It seems to be getting to be a hot topic -- and still no reasons from Vendio as to why the eBay Stores are not being supported.
LEWIS
posted on April 15, 2003 07:21:36 PM new
There is another major auction manager which has stores, and they DO offer support for eBay stores. I have had an AW store since the beginning, and I have no intention of dropping it. I just want to get my products on as many venues as possible, within my budget limits.
As you can see, I have been checking out other management possibilities, but as I said, I don't REALLY want to change. I just want to be able to send one invoice to my customers. As it is now, I just ignore the AW post sale when customers also purchase from my eBay store, and send them an invoice from my website, which sends them further away from AW (oops again, Vendio). It gets kind of complicated to the customers when they order from all three (auction, AW store, and eBay store). They get invoices (emails) from AW, and from my website. It also wastes a lot of my time and theirs.
posted on April 16, 2003 11:16:15 AM new
Kathy, which other auction service outfit is providing support for eBay Stores?
You are right about the confusion for the customers and the extra work for the sellers in providing check-out for sales.
When a customer buys from an eBay Store and a Vendio store (which we drive them to, hopefully) and then have to tell them they can't check out in the same place....
Wow, what a ball of confusion it creates. Not to mention that Vendio misses out on the sales fees for the eBay Store items!
I don't want to face another learning curve on breaking-in another auction support venue -- but I may have to.
Your comments, Sonya???
LEWIS
posted on April 16, 2003 07:00:25 PM new
After my initial post on this subject and having just opened an ebay store, I TOTALLY AGREE with all the posts here. Vendio needs to have support for Ebay stores. This is way to much back tracking to fix all the listings posted thru Vendio so they appear in the proper category as it relates to the ebay stores. Not to mention the thought of the after auction NIGHTMARE that could evolve. Is there a reason Vendio cannot support Ebay Stores??????????? I like using Vendio and have for a long time and they do a good job but this could become a big glitch in the process down the road.
posted on April 17, 2003 07:26:38 AM new
I have just sent the following email to Vendio by email:
"This email is directed to those who determine Vendio's policy, and those who influence Vendio features/enhancements.
I have posted to a couple of threads in the Community boards about Vendio's lack of support for eBay Stores. I direct you to those threads:
http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=15&thread=76655
and
http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=505977
My intention in this email is not to berate Vendio for the lack of eBay Store support. Rather it is my intent to bring three things to your attention:
1. Attitude is all important. We in the auction community have lamented the poor customer response from eBay and the seemingly blatant disregard for seller needs and wants.
Vendio must do all it can to avoid falling into the same trap; avoidance of answering direct questions to the board moderators about policy cannot continue. Honest discussion about Vendio's future plans affects all of us.
2. Business is paramount. I can fully understand and appreciate Vendio's goals and business plans. I sincerely hope that Vendio is wildly successful!
However, unlike eBay which can outright BUY any company that competes (witness: Half.com and Paypal to mention the most obvious) Vendio cannot buy-out the competition.
Vendio would have to buy eBay to remove the eBay Store competition with Vendio Stores. Therefore, it is with the utmost respect and best intentions that I request that Vendio look at the old axiom: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Support for eBay Stores is the only major feature of Vendio's superb business plan that is missing.
3. Vendio is currently missing out on sales fees for eBay Stores which many of your customers now have; you are doubling the work for us to make sales in Venio/eBay Store simultaneous sales.
Think about this for a while: Where do the Vendio Stores customers come from? Granted there is traffic from Froogle, but I'll bet the majority of it is from eBay customers whom WE have driven to Vendio to check out for an auction or view our Vendio Store items.
Further ignoring of eBay Store support is causing some major conflicts in this supposedly "integrated" sales support.
Conclusion: Please consider your stance on this and let us, the customers, know your plans -- with an explanation.
The small sellers made eBay what they are -- we also made Vendio what it is and what it will become.
Sincerely,
LEWIS BURCHETT
eBay username: honestyplus
Vendio username: postmaster"
posted on April 17, 2003 03:06:27 PM new
The team at Vendio is listening and has heard your suggestions about supporting eBay Stores. Perhaps I can shed some additional light onto the reasons we do not currently support eBay Stores.
As you may or may not know, our development resources are limited. Like any growing company, we have more items on our to-do list than we can actually get done. One of the ways we prioritize our development efforts is through surveys to our customers. In fact, we fielded one last fall asking customers to rank a number of service enhancements and features. And eBay store support ranked dead last. Items that ranked higher included: new templates, support for item specifics, and a number of other enhancements.
It would be erroneous to conclude that we will never support eBay Stores - they are on our list of things to do. However, we have a few things ahead of it that need to get done. We will be fielding other surveys in the near future that will ask customers about what is important to them, which features and services they would like to see. And based on those results, we may re-prioritize our efforts.
Also, as one post mentioned, we do have our own Store service that competes with eBay's. And there are sellers that have had success using a Vendio store to cross promote from their eBay sales traffic, in addition to leads brought in from Google. And we are working hard to determine other ways to drive traffic to our Stores and further increase their viability to our customers.
The grand plan is to enable our customers to sell in any location they please - with all transactions integrated and monitored through one dashboard. We simply ask that you give us some time to put this together. Other services try and deliver everything under the sun, but sacrifice reliability resulting in severe outages and inconvenient downtime. Our number one goal is to keep services up 24x7 while continuing to develop newer, better services for online sales. It's a balance that may not please everyone all the time, but has kept us in business during a turbulent business climate for pure Internet companies.
I hope this post address some of the concerns you have voiced about eBay Stores.
Happy selling,
Kevin Wray
VP, Corporate Marketing
Vendio
[ edited by kwray on Apr 22, 2003 09:55 AM ]
posted on April 18, 2003 07:57:54 AM new
Hooray!!! You are at least considering eBay Store support.
I just filled out the survey, and added some suggestions for helping those of us who have other selling venues.
Here is my comment:
"Please, please include eBay store support. You could just make post sale and invoices more editable, so we could add items which customers purchase from other sources, and edit the price, in case we have agreed to give the customer a discount on the price.
I also could use more than one pick for insurance, as some of my items are shipped UPS, and some USPS."
I use some of the other auctions, which are not supported, and have a couple of online stores also. Being able to add any purchases from these other venues would be such a great help!
Kat
Kathy Kieff
Gifts-N-Crafts
http://www.gifts-n-crafts.net
posted on April 22, 2003 06:43:44 AM new
Thanks for your reply, Kevin. I hope that eBay Store support is implemented soon as I am sitting on several thousand philatelic items that I would love to list in BOTH stores.
With the doubling of posting efforts involved with both stores I am lagging behind in getting these items on the market. I am investigating other auction support companies in the interim to evaluate their features. There will be trade-offs to be sure.
If/when there is a firm schedule for implementation of eBay Store support I'd appreciate a heads-up.
Once again, thank you for the input.
LEWIS
posted on May 5, 2003 09:01:47 PM new
I too am looking forward to the E-bay Stores support. It is my belief the reason stores came in dead last in the survey was because the people who it is important to are using the other auction management services that support it. Therefore they put their vote in already, but it was a silent vote and not heard at Vendio
I for one rely on Vendio's Post Sale Management, and Paypal Payment Capture. It is a real delima to stay with Vendio, or go to somewhere where everything works, even if not as well as Vendio. For now I am staying and watching every day for a hopeful announcement that the Ebay Stores Support is on their short list.
Hurray for any Vendio when this feature is supported
VENDIO RULES!
[ edited by gousainc on May 5, 2003 09:03 PM ]
posted on May 6, 2003 03:36:12 PM new
Well... maybe keeping the topic hot will prompt some action on Vendio's part to
SUPPORT EBAY STORES!
I just walked a friend thru the intricacies of using Vendio as a new user. He signed up for the trial period on my recommendation. I just found out that he is starting an eBay Store and will not continue the trial membership in Vendio because of the lack of eBay Store support. He was a bit miffed with me for "wasting his time" on learning Vendio posting procedures and not telling him there was no eBay Store support. Oh well -- another lost customer for Vendio.
If it *is* all about money then Vendio is the ultimate sufferer because of all the lost fees on handling the eBay Store sales.
LEWIS
posted on May 7, 2003 08:34:50 PM new
It does not seem to me it is all about the store fees, but losing all of the potential customers to other services that offer store support. Fortunately, Vendio is the best in certain areas, and holds a good market share, but without supporting stores, sometimes best does not matter.
posted on May 7, 2003 08:42:56 PM new
AMEN!
In the long run it is also about ignoring the folks who built these two essentially good companies -- eBay and Vendio.
As far as the specific eBay Store support issue: What could it hurt????
LEWIS
posted on May 8, 2003 07:44:39 PM new
What is even more of a reason to support the stores is the length of the auctions, and the commitment that would result from long listed products.
An ebay store costs 6 cents a month to list something, and that is with gallery. It can also be listed until sold, so lots of items can build up in your store without having to re-list. This would make one more reliant on the auction servive. Once a person has many items isted, and the auctions are integrated with a particular auction services checkout and tracking, it would make it harder to leave for another service. With auctions ending every 7 to 10 days, it makes it easier to see greener grass and leave.
I like Vendio, so I hope they make an announcement soon that they will support Stores. I do not want to get hooked into a different service and not be able to come back.
My Opinion: Vendios product is the best around, except for the Stores Issue.
posted on May 8, 2003 08:24:23 PM new
Yep, you are right on all counts. A few other points from the point of view of my Vendio account:
1. My auctions are, of course, tracked by Vendio and listed. Vendio also tracks my eBay Store items and they show up on my Vendio Store list -- this dupplicates all my listings as they are listed in my Vendio Store too! There is the possibility that someone could buy an item in my Vendio Store and my eBay Store which would be the SAME item! It has happened twice. What a drag.
2. Vendio tracking of my eBay Store items puts a lot of useless information in the active listings in the Sales Manager area. I can't do anything with these listings and I have to wade thru them to use my Sales Manager auction listings. Yet another drag.
I do like the fact, as you mentioned, that the eBay Store items can sit there for months and relist automatically for just 6 cents a month. Vendio would make the same commissions on either transaction -- so why not?
Beats me.
LEWIS
posted on May 14, 2003 08:32:27 PM new
I look a couple times a day to see if Vendio has decided to support E-Bay Stores.
It was encouraging to see a questionnaire about sales channels customers use or wish to use in the future. However, on most questions, it seemed to leave out Ebay Stores as an option. Hopefully this questionnaire will show people need a way to list in the growing E-Bay Store Environment.
One thing it gives me that other places do not, is the benefit of all the positive feedback I have accumulated. With Froogle, it is bound to increase in popularity, but searchers may be timid to buy without the feedback system being familiar to them. I have had a Vendio Store for a long time, but hope the E-bay stores are supported soon.
Using all channels available would be the best combination. E-bays at 6 cents a month with gallery, plus getting exposure in generic Ebay auction searches would be beneficial. (Auction searches show related Ebay Stores that carry the item searched for)
I still like Vendio's service, and commitment to make things easy for the seller.
Thanks Vendio! I will check back soon.
[ edited by gousainc on May 14, 2003 08:34 PM ]
posted on May 14, 2003 08:49:04 PM new
Some great points, gousainc.
The feedback from eBay is a definite plus in getting buyer confidence.
If the questionnaire omitted reference to eBay Stores then Vendio can say it's an unnecessary feature since the responders did not give any opinions about eBay Stores!?
The postings to this thread are the tip of the iceberg. I've gotten a few other private emails about the lack of eBay Store support and know of other Vendio users who have left because of the lack of eBay Store support. I hope Venio gives weight to these facts.
If Vendio would give us a definitive answer, like, "No, never, eBay Stores!", then I could make some decisions. At this point there needs to be a provision for Vendio to omit the eBay Stores from showing up in the Sales Management area and from my eBay Store items being duplicated in my Vendio Store (I post them in both venues). I need to be able to opt-out on having Vendio track eBay Store items... why do it if I cannot act on the info? Tracking of my *auctions* automatically is fine but the lack of being able to use management tools in Vendio for my eBay Store items is a real mess! Either support the eBay Stores or not; if not then delete the data gathered for eBay Stores. It has resulted in an impossible clutter of information that I cannot use Vendio management tools on -- and that is why I use Vendio. Go figger.
LEWIS
posted on May 14, 2003 10:47:33 PM new
I do not want to be mis-quoted about saying the questionnaire omitted reference to eBay Stores. I believe there was one question that had the Ebay Store name listed.
When some of the other questions directed a response about Stores, it gave the example of "Vendio or Yahoo Stores". If someone was not interested in Vendio or Yahoo Stores, then it almost made the Store Choice not a good choice to make. But if they did not choose that option, they were omitting their desire to have Stores Supported better.
Like you said, it is a mess when store items show up in the management tools, but are not processed like other items.
I had 5 of 60 items purchased from a single Ebay Store sale item. The imported item if refreshed shows 55 items left, then after a few hours it goes back to showing 60 left. Also, if I change my price, and re-import the item, it comes up with the old pricing in the listing in the management tools.
posted on May 16, 2003 08:24:40 AM new
I like Vendio too, but I'd
LOVE
Vendio if they'd get some control over
eBay Stores. Right now the eBay Store
items are creating a mess on an otherwise
orderly site!
posted on May 25, 2003 08:18:50 AM new
I think I have good news for everyone with an eBay store!
I went to "Import my Listings", and imported. My items I have sold in my eBay store are now showing in Post Sale. I had one who had also won an auction. I was able to combine these two, and use all the post sale functions.
I am now wondering if I can also use the checkout button on the listing (and have it be functional).
Kat
Kathy Kieff
Gifts-N-Crafts
http://www.gifts-n-crafts.net
posted on May 25, 2003 10:56:08 AM new
That's news for sure. As far as "good" news, only time will tell. I have had eBay Store items which were purchased show up in my closed items too but I could not do anything with them except archive them. No other action was possible.
So you imported all your auctions? That means that if you have any listing in your eBay Store and your Vendio Store which are the same item you have DUPLICATED your listings!
How do you think you can handle that if a buyer selects them both?
LEWIS
posted on May 25, 2003 04:28:39 PM new
Lewis,
The combined order was fully functional.
As far as duplicating items, I have the eBay store items in my Vendio store anyway. If they order more than one, it is okay with me. I will handle it the same way I do when someone accidentally places their order twice from my eBay store (that has happened a couple of times), and send them an email asking if they intended to order 2 of the items. If they didn't, I just ask for FVF refund for one.
Kat
Kathy Kieff
Gifts-N-Crafts
http://www.gifts-n-crafts.net
posted on May 25, 2003 06:56:03 PM new
Nice to know that the checkout was functional.
In my case the items listed in both eBay and Vendio Stores are one-of-a-kind, usually higher priced classic first day covers. A buyer who selects the same item twice can only have one! This is a real mess for me and can cause some consternation and confusion for the buyer.
LEWIS
posted on May 26, 2003 07:10:59 PM new
I have seen some success stories posted with Post Sale Functionality utilizing E-bay stores. I have had some success lately with items showing up in Post Sale, from the store also, however, I had an item sell in my E-Bay store today, and it disappeared from post or active status. The checkout button showed up as an add on in the ebay listing after the sale, but when I followed the link, it listed the item number that was assigned back when it started as an e-bay auction. Entering the winning bidders e-mail resulted in a "unable to verify that you are the winning bidder of this auction" message. I guess this reminds us that Vendio really does not support the stores, and if things work sometimes, it is not consistent enough to count on it working every time. I thoroughly enjoyed Vendio handling the Post Sale in some previous purchases and check back here in the bulletin boards to see if they have made an announcement to support the E-bay Stores several times a day. I am happy to hear of some interim success stories.
